I was messing around with my Mac computer tonight and discovered that my Boot Camp installation of Windows XP was not working. I was trying to boot up into my Windows XP installation and it continued to fail for me. I could get to the installation thorough Parallels, but that was it. I figured that if there was no way for me to access my Windows installation was through Parallels I might as well reinstall Windows in a Parallels Virtual Machine.

I started the installation, then realized that I did not have my Windows Product Key. Since I did not have a easy way to contact technical support I decided to do a little Google research. I found that I could retrieve the Windows Product Key from another installation of Windows XP by using RockXP 4.0 Beta .

RockXP is a cool little utility that will scan your installation and display your Microsoft Product Keys for you. In about 5 minutes I got my product key and wrote it down in a flash. I then ran over to my Mac and entered the Product Key that was given to me. With a skeptical click of the next button, I was relieved to see that the key was accepted. Thank god for the web and cool utilities like this, that has saved my another sleepless night wondering how I am going to get my computer fixed.

UPDATE: While this product did return the product key that I needed, it might have also introduced some viruses on the system in which it was installed. Be careful when using this software because of viruses. I would only use it as a last resort.